Well, yesterday was the first day of our actual tour so I apologize if I start repeating some of the same pictures. I know I have already done that. Yesterday, we met up with our tour and on our back to our new hotel we came in on the Grand Canal which was new for us.
The beginning of our water taxi back to Venice from the airport.
Love this as you see the reflection of the building on the roof of the boat.
Today was our first full day of the tour and we got to see the Doge Palace with the guide. This was something that we already did on our own. It was kind of like watching a movie that you've already seen. I was surprised how much I saw the second time around that I missed the first time. I didn't think I would take many pictures today but I did ...
The clock above is in St. Marco Square. The clock on the bottom as you see has the 24 hr. Roman numeral face with the astrological signs and the planets. The hand of the clock has the earth in the middle and the sun as the point so at the time they thought the sun evolved around the earth and earth was the centre of the universe. The clock above that is a digital clock so you know when we were there.
The gold lion is on top of the Basilica which is the symbol of Venice.
This is also on the top of the basilica and tells the story about how the bones of St. Marco came to Venice. When the bones were discovered they were shipped in a basket and were covered in pork so when the basket was opened the Muslims would not notice them. When they saw the pork they would shut it quickly and that is what happened.
This is Saint Theo who before the bones of St. Marcos was found was the patron saint of Venice. He was a Greek soldier and here is slaying a dragon.
This golden angel is seen from the Doge Palace courtyard and is actually a weather vane so is not fixed but turns so some days will be turned away from this spot.
On the landing going up the stairs in Doge Palace you will see these three dimensional tiled floor. Above it was the gold roof that I shared earlier. I was so busy taking pictures of the golden ceiling that I missed this amazing tile job. Very impressive.
This is a picture in the largest room in the Doge Palace. At the centre of the painting you will see a man with a basket of fish. Take a look at his leg and tell me what is wrong with this picture?
The Doge Palace leads into the old prison. Here we are in one of the cells that about 6 people would be held.
From Doge Palace to the prison is the bridge of Sighs.
This is taken from the inside of the Bridge of Sighs so as prisoners were taken to the prison this would be their last view of freedom so called Sighs.
This is the view of the Bridge of Sighs from the outside.
In the afternoon we joined a Murano glass blowing demonstration. The mosaic above of the Last Supper was in the area where we waited for our demonstration. It was really quite impressive. The picture doesn't do it justice but it is intricately made of very small pieces of glass.
Our glass blower is 65 and soon will be retiring and there is a concern that there are not glass blower trainees to replace the existing glass blowers and soon there will be a shortage of these wonderful creations.
Some examples of glassware that was available.
My favourite chandelier - the colours were wonderful.
I took this picture of Bruce because I spent half my time waiting for Bruce because he would be busy writing down info in his little black book lol!
Another picture of us taken today.
